Interlude - Index of

24 | Beginnings
it faster and more efficiently. For years the toaster was our
mascot, because it has such a simple and elegant user interface:
one button that says Make Toast, and one knob that says
How Dark.
Our product would do roughly the same thing as network
storage systems from Auspex. Both allowed users to store their
files on the network instead of using the disk drive inside
their computer, and to do this, both supported a network protocol
called NFS (Network File System), which Sun had invented
a few years earlier. This idea of a network storage appliance
was the foundation of our company right from the beginning,
but it wasn’t till much later that we coined a term for the industry
we helped to create: Network-Attached Storage or NAS.
We didn’t feel that our old boss at Auspex had anything
to be upset about because we planned to attack the very low
end of the market. Auspex built large, expensive systems that
could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars; we would make
small systems that cost ten or twenty thousand. We expected
to sell to small engineering workgroups at first, and over time
we thought that network computing would spread to nontechnical
markets like law firms and doctors’ offices—our easyto-use
appliance would be perfect for them. (After the legal
threats when we left, James and I didn’t even consider going
back to Auspex. I recommend that you not threaten to sue
people who you might hope would return one day.)
We thought customers would love our appliance so much
that we wouldn’t need any salespeople. We even considered
naming our company 1-800-STORAGE because anyone with
storage needs could pick up the phone and order some. Recently,
James and I stood on stage in front of our sales team—thou-